The Montessori system examined

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SH0.IFCTT0RF

FORM NO. DD10

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
BERKELEY, CA 94720

1&ibzv$inz educational jttottoarap^

EDITED BY HENRY SUZZALLO

PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY. OF WASHINGTON
SEATTLE? W^tfHtNJCiTQJ* ! ; * *«

THE

MONTESSORI SYSTEM

EXAMINED

BY

WILLIAM HEARD KILPATRICK, Ph.D.

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION
TEACHERS COLLEGE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY

BOSTON, NEW YORK AND CHICAGO

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&&*?,

COPYRIGHT, I9I4, BY WILLIAM HEARD KILPATRICK
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS
U . S . A

PREFACE

The aim of this monograph is probably suffi-
ciently indicated by the title. The purpose is
to examine generally the educational doctrines
promulgated by Dr. Maria Montessori, so as,
first, to bring out their relation to one another
and to other similar doctrines elsewhere held;
and, second, to ascertain, as far as the author
may, the contribution which Dr. Montessori has
to offer to American education.

My indebtedness, especially in proportion to
the volume of matter, is great. To my colleagues
on an investigating trip to Rome, Miss Annie E.
Moore and Professor M. B. Hillegas, I am in-
debted for very considerable assistance in the
ordering of ideas and in reaching definite conclu-
sions. My best thanks are due to the same two
colleagues and to Professors John Dewey and
Naomi Norsworthy for reading the manuscript
and for making valuable suggestions. It would be
unfair, however, to hold any one save the author
responsible for the opinions herein expressed.

W. H. K.

544ti

CONTENTS

Editor's Introduction . vii

I. Introduction i

II. Education as Development .... 7^

III. The Doctrine of Liberty .... 12

IV. Adequacy of Self-Expression in the

Montessori System 27

V. Auto-Education 31

VI. Exercises of Practical Life ... 36

VII. Sense-Training by Means of the Di-
dactic Apparatus 42

VIII. The School Arts: Reading, Writing,

and Arithmetic 53

IX. Conclusions 61

Outline 68

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

The labors of Madam Montessori have aroused
an unusual interest among Americans. Already
her theories and practices are a frequent subject
for investigation and discussion in meetings of
teachers and parents.

Among a considerable number of laymen and a
smaller number of teachers, the interest amounts
to enthusiasm. The doctrines of the Italian edu-
cator are so warmly espoused by some that
schools modeled on the plan of the Casa dei
Bambini have been established in various parts
of the country, where they rival and challenge
the existing kindergartens and primary schools.
To many of its adherents this movement consti-
tutes an educational revolution which in time
will completely change the education of children.

The interest of the teaching profession as a
whole is not marked by any such self-committal.
The teachers are concerned to know the meaning
of this agitation and are professionally curious
to ascertain its worth for them. They are critical,
if not skeptical; and they ask that the signifi-
cance of this new expression of educational the-
vii

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

ory be presented in terms of its practical bearing
upon the teaching procedure commonly em-
ployed with young children. They are tolerant
enough of new dogma and experiment; but they
possess a common-sense caution against a too-
ready acceptance of them. They prefer to exam-
ine a new program element by element, reserving
the privilege of selecting and rejecting as their
judgment decides. They would weigh every item
of tthe idealistic projects of radicals and even
of the practical successes of experiments born
among the differing conditions of foreign soil.
Willing enough to admit that any new move-
ment may contain factors that will aid in educa-
tional evolution, they are not of the type com-
pletely to let go of one institution in order to
seize another. They prefer the safer position of
being reconstructors of the old.

While admitting the value of both types of
thinkers and workers in the whole method of
educational advance, it is to the relatively large
group of public-school teachers and superintend-
ents that this volume is addressed.

The smaller class of heroic enthusiasts that
become the more or less partisan leaders and fol-
lowers of a new propaganda are not likely to be
interested in a critical analysis of the particular
viii

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

theories and practices that constitute their faith.
With them the new institutional spirit is the
thing! Details may be left to the rectification
of time!

Not so with the leaders and teachers of the
rank and file! To them the detail is the thing!
Upon the soundness of special theories and the
effectiveness of particular practices, the strength
of an institutional scheme depends. They want
to know how far the theory of Madam Montessori
departs from the best philosophy of education
that the American profession knows. And when
it does, they ask if experience, of both scientific
and empirical sort, gives warrant to the varying
belief. More than this, they would ascertain if
claims made for practical success are proved;
and, again, if such achievements may be repro-
duced under the conditions of American life.

These pertinent inquiries of American teachers
require a judicial answer. It is offered in the
brief accompanying volume, along with such
historical and logical perspective as is necessary
to clear understanding.

THE MONTESSORI SYSTEM
EXAMINED

I

INTRODUCTION

The genesis of Madam Montessori's educational
ideas is laid before the reader in simple but
attractive manner in her principal work, The
Montessori Method, as the English translation is
called. But slight reference to the now well-
known story is needed. Madam Montessori, as
assistant physician at the Psychiatric Clinic of
the University of Rome, became some fifteen
years ago interested in defectives. She thus
learned of the work done by Edward Seguin for
the education of idiots. From this and from per-
sonal experimentation in the education of feeble-
minded^ there came the suggestion of using
Seguin's method with the normal child. In this is
found one important factor in the making of the
Montessori method. While this study of defec-
tives was going on, there had been organized in
Milan a School of Scientific Pedagogy. The
I

THE MONTESSORI SYSTEM

anthropologist Sergi appears to have been the
leading spirit in the enterprise. The emphasis in
this school was upon anthropometry and measure-
ments in experimental psychology, particularly
of the sensations. Whether from a more wide-
spread interest or from the influence of this par-
ticular school does not certainly appear, but the
field of scientific measurement constitutes an-
other factor in the formation of the Montessori
method. A third element was the general back-
ground of prevalent educational theory which
one absorbs more or less unconsciously as one
does his uncriticized religion or politics. This we
may surmise was largely Pestalozzian in its ulti-
mate origin. A fourth factor was the invitation
extended to Madam Montessori by a building
corporation in Rome to organize the infant
schools in its model tenements. The effort to
meet this demand created in large measure the
Children's House, especially in its institutional
aspect. In these four elements we seem to have
the origin of the Montessori schools.

It is not necessary to the purpose at hand to
show just how far Madam Montessori is in-
debted to Seguin for her didactic apparatus. No
acknowledgment could be more open or generous
than is hers; and every one acquainted with
2

INTRODUCTION

Seguin's work will be struck with the similarity.
There is, however, one important difference:
Seguin was interested mainly in leading the
defective to make those acquisitions of knowl-
edge and skill which would with relative direct-
ness prove useful in the ordinary affairs of his
life; Madam Montessori, on the other hand, is
more interested — as we shall later discover —
in the disciplinary aspect of the exercises.

The study of science has had far-reaching effect
upon Madam Montessori and upon her educa-
tional theory. In the general wish to apply
scientific conceptions to education, few surpass
her. Those who feel the urgent need for a more
scientific study of education and for the bringing
of the scientific spirit into our attitude toward
educational practice, can but applaud the insist-
ence with which Madam Montessori returns
again and again to this point of view. In addition
to the general demand for a scientific attitude on
the part of teachers, we find specific elements of
her procedure based on her scientific experience.
For example, the teacher must keep records, both
anthropometric and psychologic, of each child.
The books in which these are kept are often
shown to the visitor. The remark may be inter-
jected that the data so recorded, unfortunately,

3

THE MONTESSORI SYSTEM

hardly function otherwise than in keeping alive
in the teacher a general spirit of child observa-
tion. Another application of the scientific atti-
tude is found in the insistence upon the liberty
of the child as a prerequisite of the scientific study
of educational data. "If a new and scientific
pedagogy," says Madam Montessori, "is to
arise from the study of the individual, such study
must occupy itself with the observation of free
children." Further, the adaptation of Seguin's
material to a disciplinary end would seem to have
had its origin in the wish on the part of Madam
Montessori to utilize her scientific study of sense-
experience. It must be said, however, that while
Madam Montessori's interest in the scientific
attitude is entirely praiseworthy, her actual
science cannot be so highly commended. Her
biology is not always above reproach, as, for
example, the alleged disinfecting influence of
garlic upon the intestines and lungs. She general-
izes unscientifically as to the condition of con-
temporary educational thought and practice
from observation limited, it would seem, to the
Italian schools. If she had known more of what
was being thought and done elsewhere, her dis-
cussions would have been saved some blemishes
and her system some serious omissions. Her

4

INTRODUCTION

psychology in particular would have been im-
proved, had she known better what Wundt was
doing in Germany, to mention no other names.

While these shortcomings are mentioned, we
should not fail to call attention to an evidence of
scientific attitude and faith too seldom found in
the teaching world — be it said to our shame.
Few in the history of education have been capable
of breaking so completely with the surrounding
school tradition as has this Italian physician. To
set aside tradition for science is no common
achievement. That the innovator is a woman
will seem to some all the more remarkable. With
the true scientific spirit of experimentation
Madam Montessori has devised a practice and
an institution. Such a consciously scientific crea-
tion stands in marked contrast with the conserva-
tism and mystical obscurantism which but too
widely characterize kindergarten education in
America and elsewhere. Whatever opinion be
held as to the success of the effort, no one can
fail to approve Madam Montessori's thorough-
going attempt to found a complete school
procedure upon her highest scientific concep-
tions.

In the discussion which follows it will be as-
sumed that the reader is acquainted with Madam

5.

THE MONTESSORI SYSTEM

Montessori's chief work, The Montessori Method,1
and also with the didactic apparatus itself. The
effort will be to examine the Montessori system
and to appraise its worth to American education.
Especial attention will be given to the merits of
the Casa dei Bambini as a rival to the kinder-
garten. Owing to limitations of space, only the
most characteristic elements of the system will
be considered.

1 Frederick Stokes Company, New York, 191 2.

II

EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT

That education should be considered as a devel-
opment from within is a principal doctrine with
Madam Montessori. The idea, of course, is an
old one. Rousseau, Pestalozzi, and Froebel are
among its most conspicuous exponents. The
value of this point of view in the formation of our
present educational practice is undoubted. The
limitations of the doctrine, however, have not al-
ways been clearly seen. Education as development
has been likened to the care given to some rare
and unknown plant. The gardener seeks to dis-
cover and supply the conditions under which the
plant can show its character or nature most com-
pletely. But the analogy is clearly deficient, else
anger and other ugly or erratic impulses should
be expressed as completely and directly as those
we prize more highly. The ill odor attaching to
the word " whim" illustrates the point and shows
the way. Life, indeed, consists in the expression
of what we are, but under such conditions that
the net result shall, in the long run, bring the

7

THE MONTESSORI SYSTEM

fullest expression to all concerned. The condi-
tions under which this proper expression may
take place — so far as these have originated with
man — make up the content of the cultural
environment. Man has learned certain ways of
doing things that he might the better express
himself. This is as true of clothing, shelter,
methods of procuring and preparing food, of art
and literature, as it is of ethical concepts and
legal procedure. The " funded capital of civiliza-
tion' ' consists exactly of all the devices thus far
contrived for the fullest expression of what we
are, for our fullest possible development.

Education is thus, in truth, the completest
possible development of the individual; but the
task of securing such a development is as great
as is the complex of civilization. Expression
involves as truly the mastering of this complex
as it does the living-out of the impulsive life.
More exactly, the two elements of mastering the
environment and expressing one's self are but
outer and inner aspects of one and the same proc-
ess; each either meaningless or impossible apart
from the other. Only in this larger sense can it
be said that education is the development of the
individual.

Some, on the contrary, have taken the position,
8

EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT

previously suggested, that in the child's nature
as given at birth there is contained — in some
unique sense — all that the child is to become,
and this in such fashion that we should tend the
child as the gardener does the plant, assured that
the natural endowment would properly guide
its own process of unfolding. Such is Madam
Montessori's view. "The child is a body which
grows and a soul which develops; ... we must
neither mar nor stifle the mysterious powers which
lie within these two forms of growth, but must
await from them the manifestations which we
know will succeed one another." "The educa-
tional conception of this age must be solely that
of aiding the psycho-physical development of the
individual." "If any educational act is to be
efficacious, it will be only that which tends to help
toward the complete unfolding" of the child's
individuality.

Such a doctrine of education has borne good
fruit; but there is danger in it. It has led in the
past to unwise emphasis and to wrong practice.
We have already seen that it carries with it a
depreciation of the value rightly belonging to the
solutions that man has devised for his ever-
recurring problems. In fact, such a theory leads
easily, if not inevitably, to Rousseau's opposition

9

THE MONTESSORI SYSTEM

to man's whole institutional life. It further fail?
to provide adequately for the most useful of mod
ern conceptions, that of intelligent, self-directing
adaptation to a novel environment. If develop-
ment be but the unfolding of what was from the
first enfolded, then the adaptation is made in
advance of the situation, and consequently with-
out reference to its novel aspects. Such a form
of predetermined adaptation proves successful
in the case of certain insects, as the wasp; for
there the environment is relatively fixed. With
man, however, each generation finds — and
makes — a new situation. If education is to pre-
pare for such a changing environment, its funda-
mental concept must take essential cognizance
of that fact. Still further, this erroneous notion
of education gives to the doctrine of child liberty
a wrong and misleading foundation. If the child
already uniquely contains that which he is prop-
erly destined to manifest, then the duty of the
educator is to allow the fullest expression of
what is implicitly given. But such a doctrine of
liberty is notoriously disastrous. The result has,
therefore, been that many have opposed every
scheme of liberty in the schoolroom. By putting
the demand for liberty on a false basis, its friends
have too often proved its worst foes. It would not
10

\

EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT

be fair to Madam Montessori to say that she
herself draws all of these objectionable conclu-
sions from her doctrine of the nature of education.
She does not. She has not thought consecutively
enough. But the conclusions are there to be
drawn. They have been drawn from logically
similar doctrines at other times. (We must,
therefore, reject Madam Montessori's interpre-
tation of the doctrine of development as inade-
quate and misleading. The useful elements of this
doctrine are covered up in error whenever devel-
opment is identified with the mere unfolding of
latency.

Ill

THE DOCTRINE OF LIBERTY

The question here raised is that of the degree to
which the child shall by his own choice determine
his own activities at school. It was Rousseau
who first brought this problem prominently for-
ward. His advocacy of the educational utiliza-
tion of liberty has profoundly influenced all sub-
sequent thought. Froebel emphasized the same
doctrine, but placed it rather on the false basis
discussed in the preceding chapter. In contem-
porary education, Professor Dewey is the most
prominent exponent of the general point of view.
In the preceding chapter we saw that some
writers, including Madam Montessori, are in-
clined to limit the concept of development to the
mere unfolding of what has from the first been
implicitly present. Such writers are further in-
clined to consider the doctrine of liberty as
simply a corollary to this conception of develop-
ment. That is to say, if the child's whole future
life is in fact already uniquely present in his
nature at birth, then manifestly, that nature

12

THE DOCTRINE OF LIBERTY

must be allowed to unfold. This is the point of
departure for Madam Montessori's doctrine of
liberty. "We cannot know," she says, "the
consequences of suffocating a spontaneous action
at the time when the child is just beginning to be
active: perhaps we suffocate life itself. Humanity
shows itself in all its intellectual splendor during
this tender age . . . and we must respect reli-
giously, reverently, these first indications of
individuality. If any educational act is to be
efficacious, it will be only that which tends to
help toward the complete unfolding of this life.
To be thus helpful it is necessary rigorously to
avoid the arrest of spontaneous movements."

But nearer, apparently, to Madam Montes-
sori's heart is the liberty to be accorded the child
as an object of scientific study. " The school
must permit the free, natural manifestations of
the child if in the school scientific pedagogy is
to be born." The aim is to accord to the child
" complete liberty." " This we must do if we are
to draw from the observation of his spontaneous
manifestations conclusions which shall lead to
the establishment of a truly scientific child-
study." A further reason for the use of liberty is
found in Madam Montessori's belief that "disci-
pline must come through liberty." By discipline
13

THE MONTESSORI SYSTEM

she means self-control. "We call an individual
disciplined when he is master of himself.' ' To
this fruitful suggestion we shall later return.

From these various considerations a system
has been devised which accords a remarkable
degree of freedom to the individual children of
the Montessori schools. J A contrast between the
Montessori school and the kindergarten of the
more formal and traditional type may serve to
give a clearer picture of the Montessori proced-
ure, and consequently of the Montessori concep-
tion of liberty as it appears in practice. The
most evident difference is seen in the function
of the teacher. The kindergartner is clearly the
center and arbiter of the activity in the room.
The Montessori directress seems, on the contrary,
to be at one side. The kindergartner contem-
plates at each moment the whole of her group;
the directress is talking usually to one alone —
possibly to two or three. The kindergarten chil-
dren are engaged in some sort of directed group
activity; each Montessori child is an isolated
worker, though one or more comrades may look
on and suggest. The arrangement of the room
shows the same contrast. The kindergarten has
a circle about which all may gather, and tables
for group activity. The Montessori room is

14

THE DOCTRINE OF LIBERTY

fitted, preferably, with individual tables, ar-
ranged as the children will. (In the writer's
observation, there has been little deviation, how-
ever, from arrangement in formal rows.) Mon-
tessori provides long periods, say of two or more
hours, while the kindergarten period rarely goes
beyond a half-hour. During the period assigned
for that purpose practically all of the Montessori
apparatus is available for any child (except for
the very youngest or the newest comers), and the
child makes his choice freely. The kindergartner,
on the other hand, decides very nicely what
specific apparatus shall be used during any one
period. The Montessori child abides by his
choice as long as he wishes, and changes as often
as he likes; he may even do nothing if he prefers.
The child in the traditional kindergarten uses the
same apparatus throughout the period, and is
frequently led or directed by the teacher as to
what he shall do. At other times he may be at
liberty to build or represent at will whatever may
be suggested by the "gift" set for the period.
The Montessori child, each at his own chosen
task, works, as stated, in relative isolation, his
nearest neighbors possibly looking on. The
directress, perchance, will not interpose in the
slightest throughout a whole period. In the kin-

15

THE MONTESSORI SYSTEM

dergarten all the children at the table, for exam-
ple, are directed — in the large, at least — by the
teacher, and all keep more or less together in
what they are doing. .The Montessori child learns
self-reliance by free choice in relative isolation
from the directress.'} He learns in an individual-
istic fashion to respect the rights of his neighbors.
The kindergarten child learns conformity to
social standards mainly through social pressure
focused and brought to bear in a kindly spirit by
the kindergartner. His self-reliance tends to be
the ease of mind resulting from conscious mas-
tery of customs, adult-made and adult-directed.
Consciousness of superiority, too, has at times its
part in his self-reliance. It is thus clearly evident
that in the Montessori school the individual child
has unusually free rein.

With so much liberty in the Montessori school
it would be easy to suppose that anarchy must
ensue. Such has not proved the case. In the
first place, the directress is not to allow " useless
or dangerous acts, for these must be suppressed,
destroyed ." " The liberty of the child should have
as its limit the collective interest." "Absolute
rigor" is in extreme cases permitted. While
these statements might be so interpreted as to
imply coercion and suppression, there is in prac-
16

THE DOCTRINE OF LIBERTY

tice little need of positive restraint, much less
than one would have supposed. On a certain
visit the writer saw one boy in a sudden temper
pull another's hair, but the encounter subsided
as quickly as it arose, and no notice was taken of
the episode by any one. On the whole, the chil-
dren worked as busily as ants about a hill. At
times the noise would prove a little trying to one
brought up in the belief that children should be
seen and not heard. Probably, however, any
protest against the noise would be rather conven-
tional than just. To the writer the suggestion of
great individual liberty proves very attractive.

What is the desirable and feasible thing to do
in this matter of liberty in school activities? It
will perhaps suffice for our purpose to consider
briefly four questions suggested by experience
with the kindergarten: (i) Why allow the child
to exercise his choice? (2) With free choice
granted, how is cooperation in group activity to
be secured? (3) How is the child to secure the
requisite knowledge and skill? (4) How shall we
secure conduct that conforms to social stand-
ards? In strictness these questions seem hope-
lessly to overlap; it is hoped, however, that this
difficulty may be avoided in the discussion.

Why allow the child to exercise free choice? It

17

THE MONTESSORI SYSTEM

might be replied that the presumption of liberty
lies with the individual; that any infringement
must be justified. The writer would be willing
to accept this reasoning, even in the case of the
child. We need not, however, base our argument
on this point of view. Other, and to some more
convincing, considerations may be urged. In a
democracy, self-direction must be the goal of
education. How shall the child become self-
directing? Can one learn to swim out of water?
To become self-directing one must enter life
itself, where decision and choice and responsibil-
ity hold sway. This seems undoubted in the
realm of conduct as an exercise of "will"; it is
equally true of the more intellectualistic aspect
of thinking. Under Professor Dewey's influence
it has become a commonplace that no thinking
worthy the name goes on apart from a felt
problem, a thwarted impulse. The problems set
by the teacher are too often not so felt by the
children. A reported or artificial problem has
little gripping effect. The real problem arises
when the current of real life is for the time
dammed. Under such conditions, the child puts
heart and soul into the situation in a genuine
effort to straighten things out. It is then, if ever,
that there is training of "mind" or "will." But
18

THE DOCTRINE OF LIBERTY

evidently the current of real life — in the sense
here used — can flow only when the child has
freedom to choose, to express himself. And life
does not flow in twenty-minute periods. Let the
child get genuinely interested, and the short
period proves all too short.1 If school life is to
repeat and make possible actual life, the tyranny
and artificiality of the short period and of over-
much direction by the teacher must go. Real
thinking and real conduct demand freer rein.
Postponing for the time the discussion of Madam
Montessori's curriculum, it appears that she and
our more liberal American kindergartens are
here well in advance of Froebel and the tradi-
tional kindergarten. The absence of a detailed
program and of excessive direction from above
afford — in this respect, at least — a fuller oppor-
tunity for genuine self-expression.

The discussion so far given prepares for our
second question: How shall we secure coopera-
tion if the children be allowed freedom of choice?
We now feel like turning the question about:
How can cooperation be secured except by the
spontaneous impulse of the children themselves?

1 The objection here urged against the short period is based,
of course, on an assumed regime of relative freedom. If tasks,
however, are to be set, as is common in our schools, the short
period may be a psychologic necessity.

19

THE MONTESSORI SYSTEM

If cooperation be forced from without, is it not
largely a sham and a counterfeit? The desirable
group work is that joint activity which springs
from the felt necessity of joint action. We are
here but repeating the discussion of the preced-
ing paragraph. What we wish, then, is to put the
children into such socially conditioned environ-
ment that they will of themselves spontaneously
unite into larger or smaller groups to work out
their life-impulses as these exist on the childish
plane. From these considerations we criticize
both Montessori and Froebel, the one that she
does not provide situations for more adequate
social cooperation, the other that the coopera-
tion comes too largely from outside suggestion
and from adult considerations.

If our discussion of freedom has so far led us
to emphasize the advantage of free choice, the
two remaining of the four questions imply limita-
tions in the exercise of such freedom. It has
always been known that following one's own
sweet will does not of necessity bring either the
most of knowledge or the best of conduct. It
is, indeed, the insistent obtrusion of this easily
observed fact that has led parents and teachers
in all times to set such severe limitations upon
the free expression of the child's spontaneous
20

THE DOCTRINE OF LIBERTY

impulses. If we were here concerned with the
education of children of all ages, our task would
be more difficult. As, however, we are more
interested in the kindergarten age, the problem
may not prove insoluble.

Before asking how the child shall secure the
requisite knowledge and skill, let us ask how
much of these he should possess at the end of the
sixth year? Is this so great in amount, or so
difficult of acquisition, that only formal teaching,
enforced by external compulsion, will suffice to
give it? A child entering the primary school
should — by common consent, at least — not be
required to present very specific entrance prepa-
ration. It is still true that he should have organ-
ized and hold available a general range of experi-
ence. We need not ask precise agreement, but
in general he should have a certain use of the
mother tongue. He should know the names and
uses of many common things of ordinary life about
him. He should know certain of the commonest
physical properties of things. In certain ordinary
manual activities it were well for him to have
reasonable skill, using scissors, paste, a pencil or
crayon, and colors. If he is able to stand in line,
march in step, and skip, so much the better. He
should know some enjoyable games and songs,,

21

THE MONTESSORI SYSTEM

and some of the popular stories, suited to his age.
He should be able, within reason, to wait on
himself in the matter of bathing, dressing, etc.
Propriety of conduct of an elementary sort is
expected.

Does any one question that knowledge and
skill such as this can be gained incidentally in
play by any healthy child? Indeed, so satisfied
have many parents been of this point that they
believe a kindergarten course unnecessary, feel-
ing that home life suffices. Without accepting
such a position, we may ask whether a group of
normal children playing freely with a few well-
chosen toys under the watchful eye of a wise and
sympathetic young woman would not only ac-
quire all this knowledge and skill and more,
but at the same time be enjoying themselves
hugely? Surely, to ask the question is to answer
it. In this instance the doctrine of freedom is
practically the doctrine of interest. As difficult
as the problem of interest for the upper grades
seems to be, here in the kindergarten age there is
little difficulty apart from our lack of faith to try,
or of skill to execute. We can leave a great deal
more to the natural working-out of the child's
spontaneous interest than many of us have dared
to believe. And curiously enough, the kinder-
22

THE DOCTRINE OF LIBERTY

gartner, in spite of FroebePs faith in childhood,
is too often the opponent of real freedom. It is
here as much as anywhere else that Madam
Montessori, exemplifying Professor Dewey's
teaching, will affect the practice of education in
America.

There yet remains the fourth question, the re-
lation of free choice to right conduct. That the
demands of propriety limit the natural freedom
of conduct need not be questioned. The real
question is, How can we so condition the child
that he shall best be brought to observe the
obligations that devolve upon him? In particu-
lar, what is the relation of this proposed manage-
ment to the child's spontaneity? The preceding
considerations have disposed us to favor a rela-
tively free expression of the childish nature. Is it
different here? Shall we agree with the Director,
Signor Stratico of Rome, in opposing the Mon-
tessori system " because it makes little anarch-
ists"? Perhaps democratic America had already,
before the advent of Madam Montessori, arrived
at a more approving attitude.

We may as well admit at the outset that cer-
tain of the child's natural impulses, probably
acquired by the race under widely differing con-
ditions of survival, cannot now be expressed in

23

fac

idtp

THE MONTESSORI SYSTEM

the manner and at the time in which they nor-
mally present themselves. Such manifestations
we must either starve off, for the time suppress,
or greatly redirect. Certain other impulses will
need less of redirection; still others, only oppor-
tunity for expression. Probably in the effort to
suppress or redirect impulses a certain amount
of positive pain association (" punishment") will
prove necessary, particularly during the pre-
kindergarten age; but, on the whole, the most
effective plan of managing the recalcitrant im-
pulses will be to encourage and feed those others
which are naturally leading in the proper direc-
tions. Thus again we find approval for positive
self-expression. It is this principle that Madam
Montessori has in mind when she speaks of
" active discipline." Our fathers expressed the
same in more theological guise when, speaking
through Dr. Watts, they said, —

"Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do."

There is yet another and perhaps more impor-
tant respect in which the principle of free expres-
sion leads to proper habits of conduct. Ethics,
propriety of conduct in general, is perhaps best
conceived as the proper way of " getting along "
with others, of adjusting one's self satisfactorily
24

THE DOCTRINE OF LIBERTY

— to all concerned — to a social situation. If this
be so, we could say almost a priori that only by
mingling with people under normal conditions
can one learn to "get on " with them. The stimuli
of social approval and disapproval are, after all,
about the strongest spurs for directing conduct
aright that we know. Child and adult, alike,
yield to the demand of their fellows. What we
wish, then, is to put children of the kindergarten
age under such conditions of companionship that
they will learn gradually the fine art of living with
their fellows. To this end adult supervision, true
enough, will be necessary. It is just here that
the kindergarten finds its chief raison d'etre. The
teacher must at times intervene to draw dis-
tinctions and direct wisely the course of ap-
proval. The real agency, however, is the child's
own comrades.

It is difficult, then, to escape the conclusion,
from whatever standpoint we view the situation,
that the relatively free expression of the child's
natural impulses — safeguarded, as discussed —
is the efficient plan for his proper rearing. Such
freedom is necessary if the child is to enter with
full zest into actual cooperation, and into the
acquisition of those habits of knowledge and
skill which are properly to be expected. The same

25

THE MONTESSORI SYSTEM

freedom is necessary if he is to grow into ade-
quate self-reliance, and, at the same time, into the
adequate control of self in the appreciation of the
rights of others. From such considerations we
highly approve Madam Montessori's reemphasis
of the doctrine of liberty. In the practical out-
working of her idea she has set an example to
home, to kindergarten, and to primary school.
There must be less of doing for the child where he
can do for himself; less of the short-period pro-
gram, where interest is too highly excited only
to be too soon dissipated; less of minute direc-
tion by mother, kindergartner, or teacher; — in
short, more of opportunity for the child to lead a
simple, healthy, normal life.

IV

ADEQUACY OF SELF-EXPRESSION IN THE
MONTESSORI SYSTEM

Freedom apart from self-expression is a contra-
diction of terms. The discussion of Madam
Montessori's doctrine of freedom given in the
preceding chapter is, therefore, incomplete with-
out a consideration of the adequacy of self-
expression allowed by her system. The didactic
apparatus which forms the principal means of
activity in the Montessori school affords singu-
larly little variety. Without discussing here the
grounds for this restriction, it suffices to say that
this apparatus by its very theory presents a
limited series of exactly distinct and very precise
activities, formal in character and very remote
from social interests and connections. So narrow
and limited a range of activity cannot go far in
satisfying the normal child. It is, of course, true
that a child finds pleasurable content in an activ-
ity which to the adult would seem hopelessly
formal, even to the point of drudgery. The small
child who took off the box- top and put it back on
27

THE MONTESSORI SYSTEM

for seventy-nine times in succession furnishes a
good illustration. In the same way, we must not
hastily conclude that no child could enjoy the rel-
atively formal exercises of the didactic apparatus.
Mechanical manipulation has strong attractions
for childhood. But after all is said, the Mon-
tessori school apparatus affords but meager diet
for normally active children. Further, while
happy childhood knows no stronger or more
fruitful impulse than imaginative and construc-
tive play, still, in these schools playing with the
didactic apparatus is strictly forbidden, and usu-
ally no other play-material is furnished. Madam
Montessori has, in fact, been publicly quoted as
saying, "If I were persuaded that children needed
to play, I would provide the proper apparatus;
but I am not so persuaded." The best current
thought and practice in America would make
constructive and imitative play, socially condi-
tioned, the foundation and principal constituent
of the program for children of the kindergarten
age, but Madam Montessori rejects it. Closely
allied with play is the use of games. One finds
more attention paid to this, but the games seen
in the Montessori schools of Rome are far inferior
in every respect to those found in the better
American kindergartens. Madam Montessori
28

ADEQUACY OF SELF-EXPRESSION

herself seems, from her use of the very word
"game," to have a most narrow and restricted
conception of what games are, and of what they
can do. Those more advanced forms of self-
expression, drawing and modeling, are, on the
whole, inferior to what we have in this country.
Modeling is, in fact, hardly at all in evidence.
Drawing and painting are occasionally good, but
frequently amount to nothing but the coloring
of conventionalized drawings furnished by the
teacher. Stories have little or no place — a most
serious oversight. There is very little of dramati-
zationAOn the whole, the imagination, whether
of constructive play or of the more aesthetic sort,
is but little utilized. It is thus a long list of most
serious omissions that we have to note.

A partial offset to these deficiencies is found in
the "practical life" activities. These undoubt-
edly offer expression to a side of child nature too
often left unsatisfied. To do something that
counts in real life, not simply in the play world,
is frequently one of the keenest pleasures to a
child. It should be remarked, too, that the defi-
ciencies noted are not inherent in the use of the
more admirable features of the Montessori sys-
tem; that is to say, we can borrow the good from
this source without giving up the good we already
29

THE MONTESSORI SYSTEM

have. Doubtless if Madam Montessori had her-
self known more of better educational practice
elsewhere, she would have incorporated some,
perhaps all, of the features the absence of which
we here regret.

It is evident from the foregoing that, after all
has been said, the Montessori curriculum affords
very inadequate expression to a large portion of
child nature | Such a limitation of opportunity is,
in effect, nothing less than repression, a repres-
sion destructive alike of happiness and mental
growth. Moreover, since expression is the means
to the acquisition of the culture of the race, the
deficiency in expression is serious, whether it be
looked at from the point of view of the child and
his present happiness and growth, or from the
point of view of culture and of the child's prepara-
tion for participation therein. From every con-
sideration, the proposed curriculum proves inad-
equate and unduly restrictive.

V

AUTO-EDUCATION

Auto - education as conceived by Madam
Montessori is the necessary correlative of a r6-
gime of freedom. From directed activity alone
can training come, but for her direction must not
contravene the child's freedom. With the teacher
thus ruled out, and the child's self - direction
inadequate, resort is had to the apparatus. In
place of the old-time teacher, says Madam
Montessori, "we have substituted the didactic
material, which contains within itself the control
of error, and which makes auto-education possi-
ble to each child."1 Does the reader ask how
this is done? Let the cylinder box answer. This
is a wooden block, in which are holes of varying
depths. To each hole belongs a cylinder which
exactly fills it. All the cylinders are removed,
and the child proceeds to replace them. "If he
mistakes, placing one of the objects in an opening
that is too small for it, he takes it away, and pro-
ceeds to make trial, seeking the proper opening.
1 The Montessori Method, p. 371.

31

THE MONTESSORI SYSTEM

If he makes a contrary error, letting the cylinder
fall into an opening that is a little too large for it,
and then collects all the successive cylinders in
openings just a little too large, he will find him-
self at the last with the big cylinder in his hand,
while only the smallest opening is empty. The
didactic material controls every error. The child
proceeds to correct himself."

The auto-education is for Madam Montessori
the only true education. "This self-correction
leads the child to concentrate his attention upon
the differences of dimensions, and to compare the
various pieces. It is in just this comparison that
the psycho-sensory exercise lies." " It is the work
of the child, the auto-correction, the auto-educa-
tion which acts."

It is impossible not to sympathize with Madam
Montessori's intention in emphasizing this
notion of auto-education. The more fully the
child can learn from his own experience without
any telling from the teacher, the more fully is
his knowledge his own. If he can feel for himself
the problem, if he can work out for himself a
plan of solution, and if finally he can ascertain
by tests of his own that his solution is correct —
if these results can be attained from any plan,
then surely that plan is a good one.
32

AUTO-EDUCATION

When, however, we turn from the general con-
ception to the specific working of Madam Mon-
tessori's auto - education, we find that what
should be the counterpart of generous liberty,
amid many and varied opportunities, has in
effect shrunk to a relatively mechanical manipu-
lation of very formal apparatus. The didactic
apparatus is in intention so devised that with
each piece one, and only one, line of activity is
feasible. Thus to the properly initiated child the
sight of the cylinder box described above sug-
gests only the taking-out of the cylinders and
putting them back (any side suggestion, as
improvising a wagon, is effectually suppressed).
And the box is further so contrived that there is
only one order in which the cylinders will fit.
"The didactic material," in this case, at least,
"controls every error." \It is in this limited
fashion that Madam Montessori provides self-
education. It is under such conditions that the
directress keeps herself in the background and
relies upon the cylinder box to set the problem
and test the solution. Surely it is a naive trust in
a very generous transfer of training which can
see appreciable profit in so formal and restricted
a scheme of auto - education. As applied by
Madam Montessori, we must conclude, then,

33

THE MONTESSORI SYSTEM

that auto-education is more of a wish than a fact.
In her scheme it is too intimately bound up with
the manipulation of the didactic apparatus to
afford outside thereof the fruitful suggestion of
wise procedure.

If, on the other hand, we consider life itself
and the situations that arise therefrom, we find
abundant instances of evident self-education. A
boy trying to drive a nail soon learns whether
he is hitting it on the head. A pair of roller
skates suggest their own problem with a mini-
mum of explanation; they also test admirably
the solution proffered. The sight of possible
playmates suggests socially conditioned activity;
the same children pass upon the newcomer's
ability to participate successfully. We may
generalize by saying that self-education is the
concomitant of attempted purpose: whenever one
can see the connection between effort and success
he is on the road to the perfected activity. We
are then led again to practically the same con-
clusion as previously reached elsewhere: The
nearer to the conditions of normal life that the
school life can be brought, the more will real
problems present themselves naturally (and not
artificially at the say-so of the teacher). At the
same time, the practical situation which sets the

34

AUTO-EDUCATION

problem will test the child's proposed solution.
This is life's auto-education and a right good
pedagogic scheme it is. If Madam Montessori's
term and general discussion can help us attain
in practice what we have for years admitted in
theory, she will have an honorable part in the
reorganization now under way of our kinder-
garten and early primary education; but the
formal auto-education based on the didactic
apparatus is at present more of a danger than
a help.

VI

EXERCISES OF PRACTICAL LIFE

The Montessori schools were first devised in con-
nection with an unusually intelligent effort at
improving certain tenement houses in Rome.
The families being poor, it was an assistance to
them for the school to take care of the children
during as much of the day as possible. Accord-
ingly, the length of the school day advocated
by Madam Montessori extended to eight or ten
hours according to season. There was thus a
concentration of authority and responsibility in
the school, which was the more fortunate, since
many of the parents had low standards of living.
In this way, the " Children's Houses" pay much
attention to cleanliness of person and dress. The
children are taught to wash their hands, brush
their hair, brush their teeth, rinse their mouths,
and otherwise care for their bodily and personal
needs. The schoolroom is largely kept in order
by the children themselves. Since school is
held during practically the whole day, a school

36

EXERCISES OF PRACTICAL LIFE

lunch is necessary, the serving of which is
largely the work of the children.

No feature of the Montessori schools has been
more commented upon than the skill and deft-
ness with which the children serve these lunch-
eons. Every one who has been present at one
of these luncheons will recall with pleasure the
eager yet serious interest exhibited by the chil-
dren, and the success with which tiny tots did
what we usually associate solely with older
hands. It seems to the writer that we have here
once more an instance of putting the school
exercises on the plane of normal child-life. Not a
few kindergartners — perhaps most of them —
know from their own experience how much
pleasure children take in such real life matters.
The interest is just what we have a right to
expect. But what about the skill? It has been
said that "not a mistake is made, not a glass is
broken, not a drop of soup is spilled." And many
friends of the system have asserted that this suc-
cess is due to the muscular control gained from
the use of the didactic apparatus. To these
assertions, two remarks may be made. First,
although the children do exceedingly well, they
still do make lapses. The writer saw soup spilled
and mistakes made in distributing lunch-baskets.

37

THE MONTESSORI SYSTEM

His friend saw a glass and a plate broken. Sec-
ond, there were no evidences of greater skill or
ability than could reasonably be expected from
the amount of attention paid by the school to
the specific exercise itself. Here, as elsewhere,
"practice makes perfect."

The question that concerns us, however, fc,
rather the value of such "practical life" activi-
ties to our American schools. The long school
day is well worth consideration. Where mothers
are so closely confined to duties either at home or
on the outside that the children cannot receive
proper attention, all-day care of the young chil-
dren by the kindergarten would be highly desir-
able. Again, in large cities, where opportunities
for open air play are few or difficult of manage-
ment, all children alike would probably benefit
from regularly supervised playground exercises.
If, then, the kindergartens for the very poor
everywhere, and for practically all classes in the
large cities, could have an all-day session with
much time spent in the open air, the results
would probably be highly beneficial. The admin-
istrative difficulties connected with such enlarged
functions of the kindergarten, while great, would
not prove insuperable, if only the desirability of
such changes were admitted.

38

EXERCISES OF PRACTICAL LIFE

What " practical life" exercises should be in-
cluded in any particular kindergarten will clearly
depend upon the community. If the mothers of
the children who attend the kindergarten are too
busy, or too careless, to see that the children
appear in the morning clean and neatly dressed,
evidently, the duty of that kindergarten is differ-
ent from what it would be if the children came
from another class of homes. This is to say
nothing more than that the curriculum of any
school should be a reflex of the needs of the
locality served — a principle well recognized in
present-day school theory.

In this connection we give most cordial ap-
proval to the Montessori practice of letting the
child do for himself as far as this may be feasible.
In the homes of the poor, necessity may force the
child to attend to his wants. Within limits, no
training could be better. Among the wealthier,
the over-zealous nurse or the indulgent mother
too often strives to anticipate each want and
effort of the child. No service could be worse
directed. As we have already discussed, the
claims of morality and intelligence alike demand
that thd[ individual come into first-hand contact
with actual situations of thwarted impulse.\ The
personal striving and contriving incident to meet-

39

THE MONTESSORI SYSTEM

ing such situations are most wholesome, both to
forming intelligent self-reliance and to furnishing
the organized data necessary for meeting other
situations. Here again we hope much from the
Montessori corroboration of a doctrine long and
widely preached, but too often disregarded.

The general idea of including among the school
exercises such occupations as are mainly valu-
able from demands of immediate utility is one
that proves attractive. It is well recognized that
cooking as a school subject, for example, does
not arouse the same serious interest among our
pupils that it formerly aroused in the home, when
the girl who took it up did so to meet the immedi-
ate need in the household. The motivation, as
we say, is largely lacking in the artificial situa-
tion of the schoolroom. If, now, the school can
bring into its service something of the gripping
interest that attaches to actual and immediate
social demand, we shall have the real effort that
counts. It must be admitted, however, that this
will not hold of all the " practical life" activities,
because some of the most insistent of these have
never aroused in young children any great inter-
nal motivation even in the best homes: washing
the face and hands, for example. In such cases,
the social approval or disapproval of the school-
40

EXERCISES OF PRACTICAL LIFE

room may prove distinctly helpful in fixing a
habit that might never be learned in inferior
home surroundings.

While no one could suppose that a curriculum
devised for a particular class in Rome would
serve, unmodified, in America, we have no hesi-
tation in concluding that we can find suggestion
for thought in the long school day, in the prac-
tical effort to adapt the school exercises to the
needs of the community, and in the possible
increase of motivation by the introduction of
activities the demand for which is immediate and
actual. The whole conception is but part of the
world-wide demand that the school shall func-
tion more definitely as a social institution, adapt-
ing itself to its own environment and utilizing
more fully actual life situations.

VII

SENSE-TRAINING BY MEANS OF THE
DIDACTIC APPARATUS

No topic is more fundamental to the Montessori
method, as understood by its author and her fol-
lowers, than is its system of sense-training. This
was Madam Montessori's initial approach to the
study of education; and throughout, it has deter-
mined her general point of view. One fourth of
the exposition of the system as found in her book
is given to this one topic. The didactic appara-
tus — the most striking feature of the system to
the popular mind — was devised to make possi-
ble a proper training of the senses. Evidently a
careful consideration of this most fundamental
part of the system is necessary to any first-hand
appreciation of the Montessori method.

While writers on sense - training have not
always been careful to differentiate their several
theories, we can easily distinguish three separate
lines of thinking in this field. The first is that the
sense-organ itself can be improved. That is, by
systematic training we can, for example, make
42

SENSE-TRAINING

the eye, as an optical instrument, see more and
better. One would thus look out of the trained
eye as through an improved telescope. To this
notion the two remaining groups of theorists
unite in entering a protest. It is not the organ
itself, these say, that is changed; a new brain
connection has been set up; nothing more. A
certain color means that this peach is ready to
eat. The child thereafter looks for that color,
and notes it when present. A connection has
been made between a color — present but pre-
viously unnoticed — and the pleasurable expec-
tation of eating the peach. In the sense that he
notices more, the child may be said to see more.
The difference, however, is not that the optical
image has been changed; but only that certain
portions of that image are now differently con-
nected in the child's conscious world.

Which of these theories is true? Consider a
typical case. Contrast Fenimore Cooper's Indian
with a student of languages. Is there any doubt,
we may imagine some one asking, that the Indian
has a keener eye, that he can see more, and more
distinctly? If the trial of strength be in the forest,
certainly; the scholar is hopelessly inferior. But
bring the Indian into a library. Place before him
a page of Latin and a page of French. The two

43

THE MONTESSORI SYSTEM

will appear to him alike, a blur of little marks.
One glance, however, tells the scholar that the
one is Latin and the other French. Which eye,
then, really sees the better? Is it not clear that
in this case each one sees according to the experi-
ence he has had, according to the connections
that have been set up? We may safely accept the
judgment of the authorities that the sense-
organs of the normal child, after the age of two
or three, do not in themselves change by train-
ing.

Let us now differentiate the second and third
theories. These agree in saying that sense-
training is a matter of making brain connections.
They differ as to how specialized the effect of
such training is. The second of the three theories
says that if the child has learned to discriminate
a certain group of visual forms, he has trained his
power of visual discrimination so that thereafter
he can the better discriminate any matter of
sight. The third says that there is no general
power or faculty of visual discrimination or of
anything else, that training along one line will
carry over into another line only in the degree
that the two lines of activity have common
elements. The discussion of this point is too
lengthy to enter upon here. It suffices to say

44

SENSE-TRAINING

that after a great deal of investigation there is
substantial agreement on the general statement
of the third theory as made above. Although
there yet remain differences of opinion as to what
constitute common elements, the old notion of
the existence of faculties of the mind and their
consequent general training is now entirely
rejected by competent psychologists. We no
longer speak of judgment as a general power that
can be trained; nor of discrimination, nor of
observation.

What practical difference would it make which
theory any one might hold? Pedagogically, the
applications of the several theories will be widely
divergent. If one hold to either the first or the
second theories, he will feel that training of some
gymnastic kind is the desideratum. He will say,
refine the sense of sight; train the general power
of visual discrimination. And so, generally, no
matter what specific activity you engage in, it
is the training that counts. The sense-qualities
of objects which you may happen to learn are
of relative insignificance; it is the refinement of
sense that we seek. The third theory says, on the
contrary, it is what you learn that counts. If it
be a matter of sense-training, then learn to make
those discriminations of color, form, or other

45

THE MONTESSORI SYSTEM

sense-quality, that will enter fruitfully into your
subsequent life.

Where now stands Madam Montessori? In
general she puts great emphasis upon "the edu-
cation of the senses." That she accepts either
the first or second theory would seem to be justi-
fied by such a statement as "we must not con-
fuse the education of the senses with the concrete
ideas which may be gathered from our environ-
ment by means of the senses." And similarly,
when she speaks of blindfolding the child "for
the education of the senses in general, such as
in the tactile, thermic, baric, and stereognostic
exercises." Accordingly, such phrases as "edu-
cation of the stereognostic sense," "education of
the chromatic sense," suffice to show either care-
lessness in thinking or erroneous theory. Sim-
ilarly for such statements as "the education of
the senses makes men observers," "before he
can become a doctor, he must gain a capacity
for discriminating between sense-stimuli." These
statements certainly seem to imply a belief in the
validity of the general transfer of training; and
the more one studies Madam Montessori's writ-
ings, the more convinced does he become that
she holds to some such position. Apparently she
vacillates between the first and second theories.
46

SENSE-TRAINING

Perhaps the most unmistakable assertion of her
position is the following: "It is exactly in the
repetition of the exercises that the education of
the senses consist; their aim is not that the child
shall know colors, forms, and the different quali-
ties of objects, but that he refine his senses
through an exercise of attention, of comparison,
of judgment. These exercises are true intellectual
gymnastics. Such gymnastics, reasonably di-
rected by means of various devices, aid in the
formation of the intellect, just as physical exer-
cises fortify the general health and quicken the
growth of the body." l

Here we have most of the earmarks of the old
theory of general discipline: "not that the child
shall know colors, forms . . . but that he refine his
senses " ; " intellectual gymnastics " ; and the same
old analogy of mind and body. After the writer
had read Madam Montessori's book and had
studied the apparatus, he was anxious to ascer-
tain at first hand, if he could, her opinion on the
question of the general transfer of mental train-
ing. The interview was difficult, as the inter-
preter was not versed in psychology; but the
writer came away convinced that Madam Mon-
tessori had up to that time not so much as heard
1 The Montessori Method, p. 360.

47

THE MONTESSORI SYSTEM

of the controversy on general transfer; and that
she still held to the doctrine of formal discipline
discarded years previously in both Germany and
America.

Important as it is to establish Madam Mon-
tessori's intention in devising the didactic appa-
ratus, it is equally important — perhaps more so
— to ask what is the actual effect of the appara-
tus when used by children. If we set aside the
various buttoning and fastening apparatus as
belonging, at least indirectly, to the " practical
life" activities, and certain other pieces of
apparatus to be discussed in connection with
writing, all that is left calls for some form of
sense-discrimination. This apparatus is so de-
vised that discriminations may be made either
between widely varying stimuli, as a ten-centi-
meter cube and a one-centimeter cube, or be-
tween those which differ only slightly, as the
nine-centimeter cube and the eight-centimeter
cube. It is a matter of common as well as of
scientific knowledge that practice with a series
of graduated stimuli results in finer discrimina-
tions made more quickly than was at first possi-
ble. This will be true, in all probability, of any
normal child who may deal with the Montessori
apparatus. He will, for example, learn to discrim-

48

SENSE-TRAINING

inate infallibly, perhaps, and almost instantly
the several weight blocks. If one please so to
term it, he has educated his "baric sense." But
does this mean that he will be able to distinguish
weights in all the ordinary affairs of life? By no
means. It may be that he will never use his
specific skill at all. He will surely never use it
directly, unless there should chance to come a
demand for the discrimination of small weights
under conditions quite similar to those under
which the skill was acquired. His skill, for ex-
ample, would not suffice to tell whether any given
letter would go for two cents. The formal train-
ing with the weight blocks would not prove a
sufficient substitute for practice with the weight
of letters. Has he, then, gained absolutely noth-
ing that will carry over? The extent to which he
has profited is still under dispute. He has cer-
tainly added to his concept of weight. But the
value of this increment is a comparative one,
depending upon what he already had got or
would otherwise incidentally get, and on the
present need for the concept. In general, it
seems true that the really necessary concepts,
such as of hardness, of heat, or of weight, etc.,
come in the normally rich experience of the

49

THE MONTESSORI SYSTEM

child-life; and conversely, those that do not so
come are not then necessary.

In the same way, the training got with each of
the several pieces of the didactic apparatus is
genuine, but highly specialized, and along lines
for the most part so removed from ordinary life
conditions that the probability of its function-
ing directly as skill is very remote: too remote,
except possibly with the colors, for us to desire
the particular skill attained. Of what advantage
will it be to the child to recognize that this given
cylinder fits into the second hole of the doubly
varying cylinder box? If one should reply that
the advantage lies in bringing the child to make
discriminations, we should again be in the midst
of the discussion as to the general transfer of
training. The specific result is certainly the
training in this particular discrimination, and
not a general power.

It is true that any experience with color or
form or weight helps to make one's concepts of
these things; and pleasurable experience along
any one of these lines will lead the child to look
for further allied experiences. It is further true
that growth comes from the organization of such
experiences, and that this is the training that we
really wish. In these ways exercise with this
SO

SENSE-TRAINING

apparatus may be, indeed, will be, of service;
because from it comes opportunity for the con-
scious consideration of such experiences. The
formal and mechanical aspect of the training
is, however, practically valueless. Any play in
which the consideration of a size-experience, for
example, enters, will do just as well as does the
broad stair of the didactic apparatus. All must
approve Madam Montessori's wish to provide
more fruitful sense-experiences. Most children
need more activity of this kind. The natural
fondness of the young child for manipulation and
the like is sufficient proof of the fact. Care, too,
is necessary that the opportunities offered be
sufficiently varied and sufficiently ordered to
bring the desired richness of experience. But
these considerations — all important though
they be — afford no support for the dogma of
general transfer, nor do they call for an apparatus
so formal and mechanical in character as the
system under review offers.

We must, then, take exactly the opposite view
from Madam Montessori as to the nature of
sense- training. She says that the "aim is not
that the child shall know colors, forms, and the
different qualities of objects." We say that the
aim is exactly that he may know such things,

51

THE MONTESSORI SYSTEM

and we don't care about his getting any sense-
training outside of this. We conclude, accord-
ingly, that Madam Montessori's doctrine of
sense-training is based on an outworn and cast- |
off psychological theory ; that the didactic appa-
ratus devised to carry this theory into effect is in
so far worthless; that what little value remains
to the apparatus could be better got from the
sense-experiences incidental to properly directed
play with wisely chosen, but less expensive and
more childlike, playthings.

VIII

THE SCHOOL ARTS: READING, WRITING, AND
ARITHMETIC

No small interest has attached to the reported
ease with which children of the Montessori
schools learn to read and write. In the popular
mind, this comes in an almost occult manner
from that individual development which has re-
sulted from the sense-training of the didactic
apparatus. A system in which such tangible
results ensue from so tangible a set of apparatus
is bound to attract attention. When, moreover,
it is reported that the children in these marvelous
schools are left entirely free, and, as it were, play
themselves into this learning, the acme of educa-
tional achievement seems, indeed, at hand.

One acquainted, however, with the history of
education is prepared to hear of remarkable suc-
cesses attending the enthusiasm of a new project.
Pestalozzi's visitors gave accounts of his success
that seem wonderful even to-day. The monitorial
schools were similarly acclaimed as ushering in a

S3

THE MONTESSORI SYSTEM

new era of ease and rapidity in learning. Base-
dow's daughter, Emilie, apparently surpassed
all in her marvelous acquisition of new languages.
Ten weeks at the age of three and a half gave her
French, and the next year an equal time gave
both a speaking and a reading knowledge of
Latin. Enthusiasm and the exceptional case
always account for much. If there be a perma-*
nent contribution, it must be more tangible.
Proper scrutiny must be able to find it.

Madam Montessori teaches the beginnings of
reading and writing simultaneously. For easier
criticism we shall treat the two separately. When
we examine the accounts of the teaching of read-
ing in the Montessori schools we find an intelli-
gent utilization of the phonetic character of the
Italian language. In this language, to speak
generally, one sign represents one sound, and
vice versa. The method of teaching, then, is to
associate the sounds (but not the names) of the
several letters with their forms, beginning with
the vowels. The names of the letters are not used
during this early period. With a one-to-one
correspondence of sounds and symbols, the whole
alphabet can be readily taught. It is thus easy
to build up with letters any given word, or, con-
versely, to call any word by recalling the sounds
54

THE SCHOOL ARTS

attached to its several letters. If, however, one
should try to apply this method in America, the
unphonetic character of the English language
would present formidable difficulties. Any at-
tempt to meet these difficulties could but result
in a plan identical with one or another of the
quasi -phonetic methods familiar enough to
American primary teachers. It thus turns out
that the Montessori method of teaching reading
has nothing of novelty in it for America. What
it can offer has long been present with us, and a
vogue previously won has for a decade been pass-
ing away.

When we come to writing, the question is
somewhat different. Here a special technique has
been worked out. From some observations on
an indirect method of teaching a defective to sew,
Madam Montessori "saw that the necessary
movements of the hand had been prepared without
having the child sew." From this she concluded,
in relation to any complex activity, that "we
should really find the way to teach the child how,
before making him execute the task" "Prepara-
tory movements could be carried on and reduced
to a mechanism, by means of repeated exercises
not in the work itself, but in that which prepares
for it. Pupils could then come to the real work,

SS

THE MONTESSORI SYSTEM

able to perform it without ever having directly
set their hands to it before."

Following up this idea, the process of writing
was analyzed into two essential elements, "the
muscular mechanism necessary in holding and
managing the instrument of writing" and "the
visual-muscular image of the alphabetical signs."
Special exercises were devised to give the child
simultaneous training in these two elements of
writing. The apparatus for the first consists of
metal geometrical figures and colored pencils.
The child takes a triangle, for example, draws
about it, and then with a crayon fills in the figure
so made. With practice of this sort he gains con-
trol in the use of the pencil. The apparatus for
giving the second element consists of sand-paper
letters mounted on cards and a box of alphabets
cut from paper. These letters of both kinds are
in clear script. It is in connection with this sec-
ond element that the reading is taught. When the
association of the sound with the form is being
taught, the sand-paper letters are used; and the
child is required to trace each letter with his
index finger as if writing it. They are encour-
aged to do this repeatedly even with the eyes
shut. The child is thus gaining at the same time
both visual and muscular images of the letter and
56

THE SCHOOL ARTS

associating these with each other and with the
sound. As soon as the child knows some of the
vowels and consonants, the box of letters is put
before him. The directress selects a simple word,
pronounces it so clearly as to analyze it into its
constituent sounds, and calls for the correspond-
ing letters. The next exercise is for the child
to read a word set before him. This he does by
calling in succession the sounds corresponding to
the several letters. It is evident how essential is
the phonetic alphabet to the success of the plan.
After both the elements of the writing process,
carried on thus simultaneously, are well fixed, it
is a simple matter to have the child write. In-
deed, according to reports, this takes place so
suddenly as to warrant the phrase "exploding
into writing.,, It is easy to believe this, because
the manipulation of the pencil, the muscular
image of the word, and the knowledge of the
value of the letters are all present. The second
and third of these having already been joined, it
only remains to connect the first with these two.
This is the more readily done since the gradual
perfection of the first and second, even as sepa-
rate activities, has all the while been bringing
them closer together. The result is writing. It
only remains to be said that this writing, while
57

THE MONTESSORI SYSTEM

very slow, is unusually good. The beauty of the
writing, quite as much as the reported ease of
acquisition, has brought the system into favor-
able publicity.

The appraisal of Madam Montessori's contri-
bution in the case of writing is difficult. On the
whole, it appears probable that she has in fact
made a contribution. Of how much value this
can prove to those who use the English language
is uncertain. Probably experimentation only
can decide. Her plan seems so dependent on
some single-letter method of learning to read that
many will be unwilling even to try it, feeling that
previous experimentation on this point is con-
clusive. The suggested analysis of the process
might, however, prove helpful, even if not used
exactly as she proposes. We shall await with
interest the results of further discussion and
experimentation in this field.

As to arithmetic, there is little to be said.
About the only novelty is the use of the so-called
long stair. This consists of ten blocks, of lengths
varying from one to ten decimeters, being in
other dimensions the same. These are divided
into decimeters, alternate divisions being painted
in like colors. These blocks are used in teaching
the various combinations which sum ten. On

58

THE SCHOOL ARTS

the whole, the arithmetic work seemed good, but
not remarkable; probably not equal to the better
work done in this country. In particular there is
very slight effort to connect arithmetic with the
immediate life of the child. Certainly, in the
teaching of this subject, there is for us no funda-
mental suggestion.

The question of introducing the "three R's"
into the kindergarten period demands separate
consideration, although it is in part bound up
with the question of the difficulty of teaching
them. In this country we seem pretty well agreed
that these subjects had, as a rule, better not be
taught prior to the age of six. There is, however,
no definite experimental basis for such a judg-
ment; and from this point of view it may well be
claimed that the question is as yet an open one.
Education, however, is much more than the ac-
quisition of knowledge from books. And there
is reason to fear that the presence of books makes
more difficult that other part of education. If
there be any truth in this point of view, it would
seem to hold particularly of the earlier stages of
education. From this standpoint some would
feel that reading and writing might better be
postponed to a later period than put forward to
an earlier one. This would not mean that to

59

THE MONTESSORI SYSTEM

learn to read and write is in itself very difficult
for a child of six; often the reverse is true; but
that the presence of these tends to divert the
attention of parent, teacher, and child from
other and, for the time, possibly more valuable
parts of education. Education is life; it must
presume first-hand contact with real vital situa-
tions. The danger in the early use of books is
that they lead so easily to the monopoly of set
tasks foreign to child nature, lead so almost
inevitably to artificial situations devoid alike of
interest and vital contact. An unthinking public
mistakes the sign for the reality, and demands
formulation where it should ask experience,
demands the book where it should ask life. The
writer agrees, therefore, with those who would
still exclude these formal school arts from the
kindergarten period. To him a school for the
young without books is FroebePs chiefest glory.

IX

CONCLUSIONS

We have passed in review the principal features
of the Montessori theory and practice. Good
points and bad have appeared. Before attempt-
ing a summation of the several valuations made,
it may be well to ask, Where among other sys-
tems of education does this one belong? What is
the relation of Madam Montessori to the world's
educational thinkers?

When the surmise was made in the first chap-
ter that Pestalozzi formed the background of
Madam Montessori's educational philosophy,
one might better have said that it was the
Rousseau-Pestalozzi-Froebel group which formed
that background, although there are more dis-
tinct marks of Pestalozzianism than of the others.
This group of educational thinkers are differenti-
ated from others by the presence of several char-
acteristics which we find also in the Montessori
theory. The revolutionary attitude, the feeling
that one is breaking with customary practice,
while certainly present, need hardly be men-
61

THE MONTESSORI SYSTEM

tioned, as this is an element found to a greater or
less degree in all reformers. More to the point
are: (i) a belief that the child nature is essen-
tially good; (2) that the educational process is
fundamentally an unfolding of what was given
at birth; (3) a consequent belief in liberty as the
necessary condition of this development; (4) the
utilization of sense -experiences as means to
bringing about the development; (5) a tendency
to accept the faculty psychology; (6) the conse-
quent tendency to emphasize the disciplinary
aspect of sense- training; and finally (7) the em-
phasis upon nomenclature in connection with
sense-experiences. While not all of these are
found with distinctness in the writings of each
one of the group, they either are so present or
have been drawn as corollaries by followers.
They are likewise present in the Montessori the-
ory. When we consider that each of these char-
acteristic doctrines, while containing a greater
or less amount of truth, still has needed to be
strictly revised in order to square with present
conceptions; when we further consider that
Madam Montessori's own conception of these
doctrines has needed an almost identical revision;
when we still further consider that Madam
Montessori has confessedly been most influenced
62

CONCLUSIONS

by Seguin, whose ideas were first published in
1846; when we consider, in particular, that
Madam Montessori still holds to the discarded
doctrine of formal or general discipline, — in the
light of all these, we feel compelled to say that
in the content of her doctrine, she belongs essen-
tially to the mid-nineteenth century, some fifty
years behind the present development of educa-
tional theory.

If we compare the work of Madam Montessori
with that of such a writer and thinker as Pro-
fessor Dewey, we are able to get an estimate of
her worth from still a different point of view.
The two have many things in common. Both
have organized experimental schools; both have
emphasized the freedom, self-activity, and self-
education of the child; both have made large use
of "practical life" activities. In a word, the two
are cooperative tendencies in opposing intrenched
traditionalism. There are, however, wide differ-
ences. For the earliest education, Madam Mon-
tessori provides a set of mechanically simple
devices. These in large measure do the teaching.
A simple procedure embodied in definite, tangible
apparatus is a powerful incentive to popular
interest. Professor Dewey could not secure the
education which he sought in so simple a fashion.

63

\

THE MONTESSORI SYSTEM

Madam Montessori was able to do so only be-
cause she had a much narrower conception of
education, and because she could hold to an
untenable theory as to the value of formal and
systematic sense-training. Madam Montessori
centered much of her effort upon devising more
satisfactory methods of teaching reading and
writing, utilizing thereto in masterly fashion the
phonetic character of the Italian language.
Professor Dewey, while recognizing the duty of
the school to teach these arts, feels that early
emphasis should rather be placed upon activities
more vital to child-life which should at the same
time lead toward the mastery of our complex
social environment. Madam Montessori, in a
measure following Pestalozzi, constantly uses
logically simple units as if they were also the
units of psychological experience. In reading and
writing, it is the letter and the single sound, not
the word or thought connection, that receive
attention. Sense-qualities are taught prefer-
ably in isolation, apart from life situations. She
speaks also of leading the child "from sensations
to ideas . . . and to the association of ideas."
Professor Dewey insists that the experience is the
unit, and that the logically simple units emerge
for consciousness by differentiation from the

64

CONCLUSIONS

experience. Things, as a rule, are best taught,
then, in connection with what is for the child a
real experience, when they enter as significant
parts into such an experience; and this because
learning is essentially the differentiation and
organization of meanings. It is, of course, to be
borne in mind that a child experience is vastly
different from the adult experience. What to a
child is a whole satisfying experience, to us may
be very fragmentary and disconnected.

But there are even more comprehensive con-
trasts. Madam Montessori hoped to remake
pedagogy; but her idea of pedagogy is much
narrower than is Professor Dewey's idea of ed-
ucation. His conception of the nature of the
thinking process, together with his doctrines of
interest and of education as life, — not simply a
preparation for life, — include all that is valid
in Madam Montessori's doctrines of liberty and
sense-training, afford the criteria for correcting
her errors, and besides, go vastly farther in the
construction of educational method. In addition
to this, he attacked the equally fundamental
problem of the nature of the curriculum, saw it
as the ideal reconstruction of the race achieve-
ment, and made substantial progress toward a
methodology of its appropriation. This great

65

THE MONTESSORI SYSTEM

problem of the curriculum, it can almost be said,
Madam Montessori has, so far, not even seen.
While this is no adequate recital of Professor
Dewey's contributions, it suffices, in connection
with what has been previously said, to show that
they are ill advised who put Madam Montessori
among the significant contributors to educational
theory. Stimulating she is; a contributor to our
theory, hardly, if at all.

Is this, then, the final judgment of Madam
Montessori's contribution? The question of a
permanent contribution turns on whether there
have been presented original points of view ca-
pable of guiding fruitfully educational procedure.
What novel and original ideas have we found
that could at the same time bear the scrutiny of
criticism? The scientific conception of education
is certainly valid. Madam Montessori may, in a
way, have come upon it herself; but no one could
say that the world did not have a fuller concep-
tion of it prior to her. The most that can be
claimed on this point is that her advocacy and
example have proved stimulating. Her doctrine
of education as unfolding is neither novel nor
correct. In the doctrine of liberty she has made
no theoretical contribution; though probably her
practice will prove distinctly valuable. Our
66

CONCLUSIONS

kindergartens and primary schools must take
account of her achievement in this respect. Her
doctrine of auto-education will at most provoke
thought; the term is good, the idea old. Her
utilization of " practical life" activities, more
specifically her solution of early tenement-house
education, must prove distinctly suggestive. It
may well turn out that the Casa dei Bambini is
after all her greatest contribution. The sense-
training which to her seems most worth while,
we decline to accept except in a very modified
degree. The didactic apparatus we reject in like
degree. Her preparation for the school arts
should prove very helpful in Italy. It is possible
that her technique of writing will prove useful
everywhere. If so, that is a contribution. With
this the list closes. We owe no" large point of view
to Madam Montessori. Distinguishing contribu-
tion from service, she is most a contributor in
making the Casa dei Bambini. Her greatest serv-
ice lies probably in the emphasis on the scientific
conception of education, and in the practical
utilization of liberty.

OUTLINE

I. INTRODUCTION

i. The genesis of Madam Montessori's educational

ideas i

2. Her indebtedness to Seguin 2

3. Influence of science upon her educational system 3

4. Insufficiency of her science 3

5. The Gasa dei Bambini a scientific creation . . 5

II. EDUCATION AS DEVELOPMENT

1. Education as development is frequently mis-
conceived 7

2. Individual development is possible only through
the utilization of the race achievement .... 8

3. Madam Montessori considers development to be
the mere unfolding of latency 9

4. Such a conception (a) but ill adapts to a changing
environment, and (b) furnishes a wrong basis for
freedom 10

III. THE DOCTRINE OF LIBERTY

1. The doctrine of liberty dates from Rousseau . 12

2. Madam Montessori wrongly bases liberty upon
the unfolding of latency . . , 12

68

OUTLINE

3. Child liberty as the pre-condition of child study 13

4. The Montessori doctrine of liberty shown by
contrast with the conservative kindergarten . . 14

5. Montessori liberty not anarchy 14

6. The advantages of child liberty 17

7. Cooperation on the basis of liberty 19

8. Amount of knowledge and skill expected of a
child of six 21

9. Such knowledge and skill best secured on a basis

of freedom 22

10. Wrong conduct best avoided by encouragement

of proper impulses 24

11. The child best learns to "get on" with others in

a regime of freedom 24

12. Madam Montessori^ reemphasis of freedom
highly commendable 26

IV. ADEQUACY OF SELF-EXPRESSION IN THE
MONTESSORI SYSTEM

1. Self-expression is the essence of freedom ... 27

2. The didactic apparatus affords but meager self-
expression, 27

3. Imaginative and constructive play has little or

no place in the Montessori schools 28

4. Games, drawing, modeling, stories, and drama-
tization are inadequately utilized ..... 28

5. The "practical life" activities afford excellent
opportunities of self-expression 29

69

OUTLINE

6. On the whole, the Montessori curriculum is
unduly restrictive 30

V. AUTO-EDUCATION

1. Some scheme of auto-education is the necessary
counterpart of a regime of freedom .... 31

2. Madam Montessori seeks auto-education through
mechanically simple didactic apparatus . . . 33

3. Such auto-education is too restricted .... 33

4. Self -education comes best where real problems
present themselves naturally 34

VI. EXERCISES OF PRACTICAL LIFE

1. The tenement-house origin of the Casa dei
Bambini introduced many immediately practical
features 36

2. Many of these exercises delight the children and
give excellent training 37

3. The longer school day is worthy of consideration

for America 38

4. Specific practical exercises must fit community
needs 39

5. Children should be encouraged to do for them-
selves 39

6. The motivation of actual service 40

7. Madam Montessori's "practical life" exercises
are in keeping with a world-wide educational

>• trend 41

70

OUTLINE

VII. SENSE -TRAINING BY MEANS OF THE
DIDACTIC APPARATUS

i. Sense-training is most fundamental in the Mon-

tessori system 42

2. Improving the sense-organs vs. brain connections 42

3. General vs. specific training 44

4. Pedagogical corollaries of the three suggested
theories 45

5. Madam Montessori accepts the rejected theories 46

6. The didactic apparatus is thus based on error . 52

7. Less formal apparatus would give more useful
sense experiences 52

VIII. THE SCHOOL ARTS: READING, WRITING,
AND ARITHMETIC

1. The enthusiasm of new educational projects often
shows remarkable results 53

2. The Montessori reading method depends on the
phonetic character of the Italian language . . 54

3. The two elements of writing are taught sepa-
rately:

a. Manipulation of the instrument .... 56

b. The visual-muscular image of the letters . 56

4. Whether the Montessori writing method is a
contribution is as yet undecided 58

5. The arithmetic teaching has little or no sugges-
tion for America 58

6. The "three R's" should probably not be taught
before the age of six ..,..,... . 59

71

OUTLINE

IX. CONCLUSIONS

i. Madam Montessori belongs to the Rousseau-
Pestalozzi-Froebel group of educators . . . . 61

2. Her system falls essentially below the best
American theory 63

3. Her greatest original contribution is the Casa

dei Bambini as a social institution 67

4. Her greatest service lies in her emphasis upon a
scientific education and in the practical utiliza-
tion of liberty 67

RIVERSIDE EDUCATIONAL
MONOGRAPHS

GENERAL EDUCATIONAL THEORY

Dewey's MORAL PRINCIPLES IN EDUCATION 35

Dewey's INTEREST AND EPFORT IN EDUCATION 60

Eliot's EDUCATION FOR EFFICIENCY 35

Eliot's CONCRETE AND PRACTICAL IN MODERN EDUCATION 35

Emerson's EDUCATION 35

Eiske's THE MEANING OF INFANCY 35

Hyde's THE TEACHER'S PHILOSOPHY 85

Palmer's THE IDEAL TEACHER 35

Palmer's TRADES AND PROFESSIONS 35

Prosser's THE TEACHER AND OLD AGE 60

Terman's THE TEACHER'S HEALTH 60

Thorndike's INDIVIDUALITY 35

ADMINISTRATION AND SUPERVISION OF SCHOOLS

Betts's NEW IDEALS IN RURAL SCHOOLS 60

Bloomfield's VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE OF YOUTH 60

Cabot's VOLUNTEER HELP TO THE SCHOOLS 60

Cole's INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS 35

Cubberley's CHANGING CONCEPTIONS OF EDUCATION 35

Cubberley's THE IMPROVEMENT OF RURAL SCHOOLS 35

Lewis's DEMOCRACY'S HIGH SCHOOL 60

Perry's STATUS OF THE TEACHER 35

Snedden's THE PROBLEM OF VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 35

Trowbridge's THE HOME SCHOOL 60

Weeks's THE PEOPLE'S SCHOOL 60

METHODS OF TEACHING

Bailey's ART EDUCATION 60

Betts's THE RECITATION 60

Campagnac's THE TEACHING OF COMPOSITION 35

Cooley's LANGUAGE TEACHING IN THE GRADES 35

Earhart's TEACHING CHILDREN TO STUDY 60

Evans's THE TEACHING OF HIGH SCHOOL MATHEMATICS 35

Pairchild's THE TEACHING OF POETRY IN THE HIGH SCHOOL 60

Freeman's THE TEACHING OF HANDWRITING 60

Haliburton and Smith's TEACHING POETRY IN THE GRADES 60

Hartwell's THE TEACHING OF HISTORY 35

Haynes's ECONOMICS IN THE SECONDARY SCHOOL. . 60

Hill's THE TEACHING OF CIVICS 60

Jenkins's READING IN THE PRIMARY GRADES 60

Kilpatrick's THE MONTESSORI SYSTEM EXAMINED . 35

Palmer's ETHICAL AND MORAL INSTRUCTION IN THE SCHOOLS.. .35

Palmer's SELF-CULTIVATION IN ENGLISH 35

Suzzallo's THE TEACHING OF PRIMARY ARITHMETIC 60

Suzzallo's THE TEACHING OF SPELLING 60

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